ISO 18716:
Professional Farmer Organization: Guidance

This standard is not another certification standard.

It aims to empower all Farmer Organizations (FOs) to understand how to develop business capacities that unlock growth.  Professional FOs are more likely to have better business opportunities, greater sustainability, and deliver more benefits to their members.  This is essential to achieve inclusive growth.

Why do we Need a Standard?

Professional Farmer Organizations are critical to Inclusive Agricultural Growth. Support to Farmer Organizations is fragmented, inefficient and often ineffective. We need a common language by which FOs and their supporters can measure progress together.

The six core capacities

Adopting and using the standards

Farmer Organizations

  • Demand a holistic capacity assessment which all supporters use
  • Find Business Development Service (BDS) providers who are specialized in developing specific capacities
  • Partner with Agribusinesses that will invest in holistic enterprise development
  • Members use data to improve Governance of the enterprise

Agribusinesses

  • Use holistic capacity data to improve direct support to FOs
  • Use this data to coordinate support with other programs
  • Use this data to understand effectiveness of inclusivity programs

Business Development Service Providers

  • Benchmark your approach and improve (link to mapping tool)
  • Use data to segment to improve targeting and tailoring services to your clients (link to ADC blog – Lori to upload)
  • Contribute to a body of evidence on BDS cost-effectiveness

Governments:

  • Adopt the Standard (link to NSB letter)
  • Encourage all FO programs to measure capacity development
  • Allocate resources based on segmented data
  • Collaborate with private sector based on joint analysis

Donors:

  • Support systemic, strategic actions to improve the development and use of enterprise development data
  • Develop new programs that mandate and budget for the collection of this data
  • Use this data to deepen understanding and adapt programming
  • Use this deeper understanding to create collective action amongst donors on the development and use of enterprise data
How the Standard is already being used
  • Over 3m farmers benefit from benchmarked tools (link to AMEA Toolbox)
  • Benin Government has adopted a standardized metrics approach (link to case study)
  • Uganda Government has piloted a Cooperative database (link to case study)
  • African Exporters used standardized assessments to improve sourcing and profitability (link to case study)
  • An international research coalition used standardized data to understand and promote agri-BDS cost-effectiveness (link to ISF study)

Frequently asked questions

The global guidelines will make the capacity building support systems for farmers more efficient and aligned. Therefore, farmers will have more clarity on what professional core capacities are needed to close deals with buyers, and financial and other service providers.

No, this Standard is relevant for all forms of Agricultural Enterprises.  The first 5 capacities are typical professional capacities which we would expect to see in any successful enterprise.  The 6th capacity (member services) is more relevant to Farmer Organizations and Cooperatives.

Fair Trade, GlobalGAP and other certification schemes work with a small percentage of Farmer Organizations in each Country.  Certification schemes are therefore exclusive by nature.  This Standard creates a common language which enables a better understanding of the potential within all farmer organizations.  It is hoped this will lead to improved support to all Farmer Organizations.  Knowledge is power.  What we have now is a Black Box.

If your organization is a farmer organization:

Regardless of the agricultural products you produce and the local context your organization is part of, using the global guidelines will offer you a better grasp of what market actors are looking for when they search professional farmer organizations to partner with. You can use the document as reference for your own capacity building and business strategy.

 

If your organization is a capacity builder:

You will have a clear reference to what market actors are looking for when they search for farmer organizations as reliable partners. By using the global guidelines as a guidance, your organization can better couple your capacity building efforts to the specific needs of the farmer organizations you work with, so that they can access markets more easily.

 

If your organization is a buyer or input supplier:

The global guidelines will create a common understanding between your organization– as a buyer or an input supplier– and capacity builders working with professional farmer organizations. Even with different (market) interests, there will be a common aim: to achieve the development of professional farmer organizations to become reliable partners and meet contract requirements. For the relationship with farmer organizations, the global guidelines will be a valuable reference to communicate what is expected of each other, as professional businesses. Additionally, you will find it easier to connect farmer organizations you work with to financial institutions prepared to lend the capital your suppliers need to further invest in their businesses.

 

If your organization is a microfinance/financial institution:

By creating the references for farmer organizations to be professional according to what the market players expect them to be, the global guidelines will also provide your organization with a less risky ecosystem. This will help farmer organizations better understand and build the capacities that will make them reliable, profitable business partners– better preparing them for your due diligence processes. This means that (micro)financial institutions, like yours, will notice that more farmer organizations have become reliable customers.